


Reflections

by LibertyKingdom



Category: The Outsiders (1983)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 18:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21562774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibertyKingdom/pseuds/LibertyKingdom
Summary: Cherry deals with Bob's Loss
Relationships: Bob Sheldon/Sherri "Cherry" Valance
Kudos: 1





	Reflections

Ethereal laced dreams of the future shatter with the exchange of vehement words and the air rattled with slammed car doors that night. It hadn’t always been tumultuous between them. There’d been days, long since tinted in sepia of fading memories, where Bob had been amiable and warm-hearted. He’d once been the kind of guy to buy her fresh-cut vinyl records, unexpectedly bring her flowers and jewelry, open doors for her, and even assist her with difficult schoolwork. He’d always been sweet to her. He possessed something that made him different, maybe a little better than the crowd.

The grievous part is, Sheldon still could have been that guy had he quit the influence of the bottle. Its tug on him had grown fierce. The talons of addiction reached into the very fabric of his soul, distorting the person she’d grown fond of. Oh, there had been rare moments where she saw glimpses, tiny fractions, of who he used to be beckoning beneath rust tinted exterior. But just as quickly as they were spotted, they vanished under the eyes of the all too present crowd. A crowd embroiled in a bitter rivalry. One that was not phased nor appeased by senseless violence. Bob’s violent end did little to curve the bloodlust and fighting. If anything, it only poured gasoline onto the already wild inferno.  
Bitter, sharp-edged words repeatedly batter her eardrums though, they had long since vaporized into the air. “I told you before! I’m never going out with you when you’re drinking and I mean it!” Of course, to save the Greasers she’d been hanging with, she had gotten into Randy’s Mustang. The ride home was spent bickering. Battling against his slurred accusations, threats, and come-ons. The stench of alcohol permeated splintered promises that would never again be made whole. That is if they could have been turned into a beautiful mosaic. Some things that were broken could never be fixed. Her words had been sharpened, formed into a figuratively wielded weapon.

That was the last time she’d ever see or ever speak to Bob. Her last words hang hauntingly in the back of her mind. She could have been nicer. Could have used any number of words to attempt to heal the seemingly irreparable damage and yet, she didn’t. She’d deliberately chosen not to. While Cherry would typically find the peaceable solution in order to resolve any conflict for hate of fighting, she hadn’t bothered to this time. The mistake had been costly. Of course, Cherry figured there’d be no use in quarreling with Bob while he was so heavily inebriated. There had even been a plan to talk to him in the school hallways on Monday when he was sober. The red-head can’t help but feel a measure of guilt for being so unrelenting. It was her fault from the start having taken up with those Greasers in the first place. His death would always be partly her responsibility. 

His absence is tangible today, Valance thinks to herself. For the first time since the funeral, the sinking feeling of being truly alone closes in on her. That isn’t to say that she didn’t have great friends. She did. Cherry had the support of the entire cheer squad and the Soc. However, she didn’t want to hear any more well-intended condolences or combat any pitying gazes. Cherry only wanted to close her eyes and pretend that her life hadn’t been drastically altered. It is so hard to reconcile that life will move on, that she and her classmates would one day forget Bob and his impact on Soc society. That she would graduate and head off to University and he’d never don the cap and gown nor pursue higher education. 

Evergreen hues dwell upon his unopened locker waiting, in denial, for the arrival that would never come. This was just the prelude to a string of eternal ‘never again’ that Valance would soon find herself facing. The congested swell of fragmented conversations melds and warps around her till none of the words made any sense.


End file.
